Are we really 8 million?

In diversity policies, work is almost always done out of social urgency, often imposed by external causes. But today we need to talk about a different urgency, one that is born from our own deficits: what I call the Factor M (migration factor) of Catalonia's collective memory.Catalonia has just reached the historic milestone of 8 million inhabitants. It is a far-reaching transformation, but also a direct challenge: can everyone really feel part of this "us"? Can those who don't see their history reflected anywhere say "we are 8 million"?This urgency is manifested in three deep divides that segment our society:1. Neighborhood emptiness. The founders of our neighborhoods —those migrants from the 50s and 60s— are building their memory of heroic struggle. This history, however, seems to end with them. Today, these neighborhoods are full of new international migrants who have been giving them life for more than two decades, but who live parallel lives. They share the space, but not the history; they do not come to be fully recognized as neighbors, nor do they join associations to "build the neighborhood." This demographic change is often experienced with resistance and distrust, a scenario that feeds those who want to create fragmentation.2. The academic void. If we take the history books of Catalonia, migrations are practically non-existent; it's as if they never happened. How can we educate in a sense of belonging if the official narrative ignores the roots of more than half of the class? The children of Moroccans, Filipinos, or Ecuadorians, who are Catalans, are they not part of our history? If school explains a history to them where they appear as anomalies, we are telling them they are subordinates, not protagonists of the country where they live.3. The political vacuum. We are witnessing the advent of highly mixophobic parties that manipulate data to invent a past of non-existent homogeneity. They seek a society that does not negotiate with diversity, but rather criminalizes it, evoking past times of persecution against minorities. This discourse gains followers precisely because there is no solid public narrative about the memory of migrations — the M Factor — to contradict it.We must be brave in self-criticism: the national identity we are building cannot leave anyone behind. Catalanism cannot be an exclusive project, reserved for an elite that looks at diversity from a distance. Because without memory, identity is fragile: an identity without memory is not identity. If a citizen does not find their trajectory reflected in the official narrative, in history museums, or in the nomenclature, they will hardly feel that Catalonia's future project is also theirs. Memory is not just remembering; it is recognizing ourselves as equals in the craft of history.

This danger is not theoretical. The lesson from France teaches us that having citizenship does not imply having identity. Millions of French citizens do not feel like participants in their country because the national narrative has expelled them from the past. We have time to act before we regret in the future what we have not done now.It is time to have a positive memory policy. The restorative justice work on the Civil War and Francoism is admirable, but a new institutional stage must be opened. Many things can be done if there is political will:Parliamentary recognition. That the plenary of the Parliament pass a motion recognizing immigration as intangible cultural heritage of Catalonia.Institutional action. That the Democratic Memorial expand its mission and incorporate Factor M, adding the memory of migrations in a narrative of historical continuity.Intergenerational interculturalism. Foster spaces for contact between the diverse migratory waves to build an intergenerational us, connecting yesterday's struggles with today's. This would be the fourth pillar of interculturality policies, in addition to equality of rights, recognition of diversity, and positive interaction.Memory is a sense of belonging. Feeling part of history allows recognition as a full citizen. We must be aware that the exclusion of memory is the first form of marginalization. Those who do not appear in the narrative of the past will hardly be part of the future project.We often look at immigration as a challenge of the present or an unknown of the future. But it is, above all, the structural engine that has built the Catalonia we know. Obscuring this reality weakens us against narratives that simplify the past to exclude part of the present. Only if everyone recognizes themselves in our history can we truly say that we are 8 million.